Guyana’s High Commissioner to Canada Ambassador Clarissa Riehl and her husband are the owners of one of the Carmichael Street lots being compulsorily acquired by government but sources close to her say that the move has caught her off guard and she had made it clear to Attorney-General (AG) Basil Williams that she was not prepared to relinquish the property.
Stabroek News was told by sources that when the new government came into office last year, Riehl was approached with respect to selling the property but she had explained that she already had plans for the land and that it was not for sale.
Williams has since confirmed that Riehl owns one of the lots at the corner of Middle and Carmichael streets and the other, which separates the property from the Ministry of Legal Affairs building, belongs to the Beharry Group of Companies.
When asked by Stabroek News during a party press conference at Congress Place last Friday if either of the property owners had approached him or vice versa, he did not give a direct answer.
“The staff dealt with this matter. This matter was in the custody of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel,” he responded.
He added that it is the Ministry of Public Infra-structure that has “to really execute it” and the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, being the government’s lawyer and knowing the procedure, would have prepared everything before sending the order to the Public Infrastructure Ministry to be signed.
The government issued an order to acquire the east quarter of Lot 92 Middle and Carmichael streets under The Acquisition of Lands for Public Purposes Act.
According to the Official Gazette of September 24, the land is described as follows: “East quarter of Lot numbered 92 …Middle and Carmichael streets …with all the buildings and erections thereon, save and except the building and erections situate on sub-lot lettered ‘A’ part of the said quarter lot the property of Patrick L O’Dowd, and save and except the said sub-lot ‘A’ as shown and defined on a plan by Sugreen A Nehaul, Sworn Land Surveyor, dated 19th June 1947, and deposited in Deeds Registry on 26th June, 1947, transported to the said Patrick L O’ Dowd on 23rd May, 1960 – No.910.”
Stabroek News has since been told that O’Dowd is deceased and that the lands became the property of two women. After some time, they started selling the land in parts.
The Order was signed by Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson and said that the proposed construction of government buildings on the land described in the schedule is declared to be a public work.
‘Very distressed’
Williams said on Friday that government hasn’t had any negative responses from either property owner.
However, sources close to Riehl told this newspaper that news of the planned acquisition had hit the couple hard and Riehl, an attorney and former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, was “very distressed” as she felt betrayed. Riehl, based on what this newspaper was told, did not know of government’s move until a story about the decision appeared in Stabroek News last week.
Riehl, it has been established, was approached by former attorney general Anil Nandlall, who had expressed the then PPP/C-led government’s desire to purchase the land to extend the nearby Ministry of Legal Affairs. She declined. Following the change of government, sources said, Riehl was again approached—only this time by Williams. She again declined to sell.
Persons close to Riehl are furious at what has happened and informed that a plan for the construction of a structure on the land had already been approved and the couple was waiting for the right time to start the construction.
Two years ago, it was explained, the land was fenced because persons were dumping their garbage there.
Attempts to make contact with Managing Director of the Beharry Group of Companies Suresh Beharry were unsuccessful. Stabroek News was told that he is abroad and that there was no one else to speak with this newspaper on the issue.
Not necessary
Nandlall, in a letter published in the October 4, 2016 edition of the Stabroek News, said that it was not necessary for the government to compulsorily acquire the land as there are numerous state-owned properties and empty plots across the city which could be obtained.
He said government’s move to acquire the piece of private property “has sent chills down the spines of right-thinking Guyanese, especially property owners.”
He claimed that many have called him “expressing understandable fears and well-grounded apprehensions.”
Nandlall recalled that as attorney general he had made enquiries about whether the land and the plot adjacent to it were available for sale.
The adjacent land referred to in the letter belongs to the Beharry Group.
“Had they been available, my intention was to persuade the government to purchase the same for the purpose of accommodating proposed expansions of the building which houses the Attorney-General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs. My plans were brought to an abrupt end when I learnt the properties were not for sale. My concept of democracy and my innate respect for private property and the rule of law prevented me from even conceiving the option of compulsory acquisition,” he said.
Nandlall pointed out that there are numerous government buildings and empty plots of state lands scattered all across the city that government can utilise. “If the intention is to expand the AG Chambers, then immediately north of the building is a huge property owned by the state which houses the Integrity Commission and the National Trust which can be used. In short, there are many options to utilise rather than covet private property,” he noted.
“The signal that this move will send to investors will certainly be a negative one: private property and by extension, investments are no longer safe in Guyana. Another nail has been driven in the coffin of the local economy,” he added.
Nandlall said the situation was a sign that “Burnhamism is back” and he recounted what he said was the wide use and abuse of the power to compulsorily acquire private property during the Forbes Burnham rule.
According to Nandlall, the power of the state to compulsorily acquire private property for a public purpose is rooted in the concept of “eminent domain, an American concept imported into our British inherited jurisprudence and legal system.” He explained that it is a power used to compulsorily acquire private property upon the payment of compensation for the public good. He noted that because of the obvious “draconian” nature of this power and the sanctity accorded to private property, it is a power that is used on the rarest of occasions and in the most exceptional of circumstances. “It is always an option of last resort,” he posited.
Inherited plan
Before last Friday’s press conference, Stabroek News reached out to Williams for a comment but he declined to respond to direct questions about whether Riehl was aware of government’s move to take possession of the land and that he had approached her over the land previously.
However, after being pressed further, Williams said the move was inherited from the PPP/C. “It was they [the PPP] plan. We inherited it. We inherited the PPP plan to compulsory acquire the land. That is all I am telling you. Nandlall is disappointed they lost the elections and so he didn’t get to do the transaction because he told me, ‘Boss, how y’all could just buy the land for $20 million. That land worth $600 million.’”
Asked at Friday’s press conference to respond to Nandlall’s criticisms of the government’s decision, Williams said that when government entered office it inherited that proposal by the PPP/C to acquire “those same lots… the staff that I inherited recommended that, especially when I was looking to establish a permanent law reform commission and a law review unit. The current premises could not have accommodated such a unit.”
He said he had opted to rent a building and “we already had expressions of interest for such rental.
“Perhaps the problem Mr Nandlall had was that he did not get to do the transaction because he raised this matter in Parliament when he saw this item in there and I responded to him that the valuation was done by Chief Valuation Officer of the government and this project was approved by the Ministry of Finance… It was approved by Cabinet and it was passed and approved in Parliament,” he said.
Williams also said that the acquisitions are costing government $20 million per lot. “It is clear, having lost the elections, we find that the PPP, as a whole, they seem to be unhinged and they just make those erratic statements on the belief that people have short memories and so they could say anything to the Guyanese people,” he stressed.
Asked when works will begin to extend the ministry, he said the proposal is to start construction in 2017.
“We don’t know of any difficulties. The Chief Parliamentary Counsel is the officer that has custody of the process… Both lots have been gazetted and also in the publication in that gazette the Commissioner of Lands and Surveys, they have been empowered to enter upon the land and do measurements and the like. After that is completed, the Minister of Public Infrastructure will send a notice to the proprietors,” he said.
Williams stressed that it is an “open, transparent process, so there is nothing that is under the carpet.”
Meanwhile, Williams accused Nandlall of hypocrisy in relation to his criticisms of government utilising the law enabling the compulsory acquisition of private property as he noted that the PPP/C did the same thing. He spoke of a case where lands belonging to a charitable organisation, which looks after senior citizens in Berbice, were compulsorily acquired in 2000 by the then PPP/C government. He said that the then government’s justification for its actions was that it was done to establish and construct the Tain Campus for the University of Guyana. Williams said that Nandlall should now explain the difference between what transpired at Tain and what is transpiring now.
